Delivered To Your INBOX

Robert Pattinson’s Cosmopolis Reviews Are In: Mixed To Magnificent

It’s been a helluva week for Robert Pattinson.

What with gamely dodging ‘the elephant in the room,’ a surprise Opening Bell appearance at the New York Stock Exchange, a press junket, Times Talk and a MTV special — Pattinson and director David Cronenberg are going all out to spread the word that Cosmopolis is coming to a theater near you very soon.

Actually, this Friday if you live in New York and L.A. With opening weekend tickets selling like hot cakes — no doubt buoyed by recent events — it seems plenty are eager to see Pattinson in a radically new light.

In Cosmopolis, Pattinson stars as 28 year-old billionaire, financier Eric Packer. On a seemingly innocuous mission to get a haircut, his carefully controlled world (seen from the inside of a white limo) crumbles in 24 hours amid an imploding Manhattan, a punt on the yuan, while pursued by a faceless assassin and his own need for “something more.”

Back in May when Cosmopolis was screened to critics at the Cannes Film Festival, reviews ranged from baffled to rapturous.Variety’s Justin Chang declared: “Pattinson’s excellent performance reps an indispensable asset.”

Even when critics didn’t embrace Cronenberg’s surreal film noir, many praised Pattinson’s performance as his finest to date.

The best of them — and they were legion — trumpeted Pattinson’s arrival as a serious actor. So now that Cosmopolis has left Cannes and screened to Australian and US critics, what are they saying? Working negative to positive, here’s the lay of the land.

LA Weekly[Same review also in The Village Voice]

“To the extent that Cosmopolis functions as a super-literal conceptual exercise, it’s simultaneously irritating and fascinating. But much of the film fails to function as drama, and never more so than in the interminable final scene, a two-hander in which Packer finally confronts his would-be assassin in what could be rooms of his own mind.”

“Lifeless, stagey and lacking a palpable subversive pulse despite the ready opportunities offered by the material, Cosmopolis is a stillborn adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel that will initially attract some Robert Pattinson fans but will be widely met with audience indifference.”

New York Post

“Cosmopolis is like the theater of the absurd — the kind that isn’t funny. It’s like atonal music, which the untrained ear might mistake for noise.”

Metro West Daily News

“Cosmopolis is the type of film where theater owners might have to post warnings on doors stating there’ll be no refunds. By the halfway mark, look for most of the audience to have bolted, wishing they had scheduled a root canal instead.”

Star Tribune

“The film makes repeated references to abstract art — the opening credits feature Pollock-like action painting dribbles — but its anti-realist approach turns tiresome long before the journey is done.”

“Even if his performance is not marked down as one to remember, it’s great to see that he is making smart choices in his post-Twilight career. Word is he will be starring in an upcoming Werner Herzog movie. I’m there… It’s difficult to explain exactly why Cosmopolis doesn’t work. It has all the ingredients of a great film: precise direction, timely subject matter, a very capable cast and a meaningful screenplay. But somehow the material fails to translate to the screen in an engaging way.”

LA Times

“The film as a whole is a study in contrasts — the beautiful versus the ugly; rich and poor; sane and deranged. But DeLillo’s brilliant analysis of the destructive power of wealth that took such seductive hold on page has a tough time gaining traction on screen.”

Eye For Film

“There’s plenty to chew on here but little flavour to savour; most of the minimally-soundtracked ‘action’ takes place in a series of vacuums, and will leave many viewers (especially Twi-hards) feeling frustrated and cheated, more so if they’ve been duped into watching by the ridiculously misleading trailer. While Pattinson is to be commended for taking on such an un-commercial vehicle – to which he definitely does no disservice – it all seems a bit too calculated, more posturing than penetrating.”

Newstalk

“Pattinson […] in this crushing bore with pretensions of grandeur from director David Cronenberg.”

Denton Record Chronicle

“Robert Pattinson plays Eric Packer, a 20-something financier who rides around Manhattan in his limousine while conducting business, having sex and even undergoing intimate medical procedures. Ostensibly, he’s on the way across town for a haircut from his father’s old barber. Along the way, several random and surprising acts of violence unfold while we gradually learn a little about him, but never enough to justify the inane journey in this obscure pseudo-drama.”

The Australian

“Pattinson… is a divisive figure — divisive, that is, if your defining terms are ‘teenage girls’ and ‘everyone else’. Here he is his usual wooden self, even if the story had potential… with someone more gripping in the lead, it might have had more to it. Still, see what you think.”

“Poor Pattinson does the best he can. He’s not terrible. But he’s definitely out of his element, if not beyond his depth, an altar boy in a bishop’s robes. Packer is three parts early James Spader to two parts classic Bond villain. Whether shaken or stirred — or even both — that’s a very hard mixture to pull off. The actors all pretty much come across as really smart zombies, as adept at narcolepsy as eloquence.”

“As a director, Cronenberg succeeds brilliantly. Pattinson is played to his strengths as the toneless, humorless, boring cipher around whom things happen… As a writer, however, Cronenberg fails miserably. Adapting Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name, he has a great deal to say about the distance between the rich and the poor and the sense of isolation that exists within a city, intentional and unintentional, striven for and missed, but the commentary is hackneyed and uninteresting.”

Today I Watched A Movie

“This isn’t a story. It’s a bunch of people riding around in a limousine trying to out-non-sequitur each other.”

“With interesting and relevant themes… Cosmopolis has a very good shell. It’s also darkly sarcastic in a way I’ve never really seen before… As you can probably tell I found Cosmopolis to be a detestable movie. Unlike some films that seem mindless, Cosmopolisalmost seems too mindful.”

Sydney Morning Herald

“Robert Pattinson starring as a rich man who has lost interest in the world seemed at least convincing, however placing him in a limousine in front of criminally poor green-screened New York traffic with the goal of a haircut and a fondness for fortune-cookie wisdom was the beginning of a terminally tedious journey.”

Huffington Post

“As one would expect from Cronenberg, there are sudden moments of shocking violence to go with the moments of unsexy sex. None of it will distract you from the fact that this limo, like the whole enterprise titled Cosmopolis, is going nowhere.”

“The story of a spoiled and amoral rich guy who plays by his own rules is nothing new. Weighed down by inert storytelling, hollow characters and alternatingly pretentious and inane dialogue/non sequitirs, this nihilistic tale of conspicuous consumption is stultifying.”

“There are many great moments in the film—both humorous and sorrowful—as we follow Packer’s quest to feel something, anything… The great moments, however, fail to make up for the incredibly slow pace of the film. If ten or fifteen minutes had been cut out, it would have been a more engaging, well-paced film.”

Box Office.com

“Cosmopolis ultimately plays like Cronenberg riffing on Mike Leigh’s Naked, or a contemplative take on Justin Timberlake’s In Time, sans the stupidity. All the same, despite the familiarity of its rage, a film this thorny will always be a challenge to embrace, even for its most ardent admirers.”

Poptimal

“Robert Pattinson may be the one that takeaway from theTwilight phenomenon we collectively look back on in 20 years as a gift… For his part, Pattinson is a capable lead and I hope that off-the-wall choices like this project are teaching or helping him develop something in his craft. Then it’s not a total waste.”

Roger Ebert [Re-published in The Marietta Daily Journal as well as Chicago Sun Times]

“Cosmopolis is flawlessly directed. Yes, it is. I can’t easily imagine a better screen version of the DeLillo novel, although I don’t much want to imagine one at all. David Cronenberg is a master filmmaker, whose films sometimes fail to reverberate with me, but whose genius cannot be denied. There is a coldness and abstraction in much of his work, a heartlessness. He touched me deeply in films like Eastern Promises, The Fly, The Dead Zone… Then there are films like this. Can one say Don DeLillo found not only the ideal but perhaps the only director for his novel?”

“Cosmopolis would have to be my least favorite David Cronenberg’s film so far.The acting is marvelous across the board. Morton, Binoche, Pattinson and the great Giamatti, all bring their A-game, but this limo ride of philosophical theories and nonsensical economic predictions mixed with pointless violent shock value, does nothing but leave a bitter aftertaste.”

“He catches plenty of ire because of Twilight, of course, but after that’s all over, I do believe he should seek out quirky, bizarre roles that accentuate his inherent weirdness. Even if Eric Packer is a creep lacking in anything likable, Pattinson proves to be very watchable.”

Columbia Daily Tribune

“Considering the film as a whole is an exercise in frustration. Mainstream, indie or whatever, this simply isn’t an enjoyable film to watch. Viewers can appreciate the overall effect, I suppose, but it’s not a movie you’ll want to see more than once, though that’s exactly what’s required to “get” deeper meaning, if it indeed exists in this curious artistic vacuum.”

Adding,

“Instead, most viewers — fans and foes — will break this down into collective scenes of certain significance or style. That said, my favorites include one where Eric attempts a conversation with Didi while receiving his daily prostate exam in the moving limo. It’s a perfect example of the film’s super-dry, dark humor — for many, its only saving grace. Taken strictly as a black comedy, the movie almost works — but not enough to justify the effort needed to watch it.”

“The good news is that he’s actually good—or at least utterly believable—in Cosmopolis. As young billionaire Eric Packer, Pattinson delivers a tightly controlled and impressively self-assured performance. With the performance free of the overwrought mannerisms—the weird faces, the emotional outbursts—that give his critics most of their ammunition, the biggest complaint one could have about Pattinson’s work here is that it’s too restrained.”

Adding,

“Cosmopolis is too arty and abstract, even by Cronenberg standards, to become a commercial success. But it may accomplish the larger goal for which Pattinson has been striving the last several years. He’s finally found a film that breaks the mold.”

Orlando Weekly

“Robert Pattinson plays Packer with an assured level of detachment and scorn. Make no mistake, this is Pattinson’s film – I can’t think of a scene that he’s not in – and he isn’t called on to show much range or feeling, but does display some strong chops… But for all of that, there are too many loose ends and plot points that end up petering out. Like a funeral procession for a Sufi rap star, it doesn’t deliver the commentary on celebrity that it strives for.”

Just Press Play

“There are many great moments in the film — both humorous and sorrowful — as we follow Packer’s quest to feel something, anything. He sleeps around, argues with his wife, and slowly descends into more violent territory, hoping to feel any form of emotion. He becomes reckless and childlike, feeling immortal. The great moments, however, fail to make up for the incredibly slow pace of the film. If ten or fifteen minutes had been cut out, it would have been a more engaging, well-paced film.”

Twitch Film

“Like any of the great director’s worksCosmopolis is a film well worth seeing. Unfortunately, I see it as more as a failed experiment in cinematic austerity than something worth watching multiple times as per many of his other works. Still, I applaud the effort, but would suggest that perhaps this story simply wasn’t one worth telling on the big screen, no matter how accomplished the filmmakers behind the attempt.”

“Even when the film appears to be spiraling out of control, a meticulous direction operates like clockwork. The sense of pacing and atmosphere displayed is a sign of a true auteur,an artist behind the camera that has a story to tell, and knows exactly how he wants to tell it. Visually and intellectually, Cronenberg tells that narrative beautifully. Emotionally, however, it fails time and time again to resonate. Perhaps this is because in the place of a heart, Cosmopolis has a dollar sign.”

“Pattinson is great in the central role, Peter Suschitzky’s camera staying with him for almost the entire running time, leaving him to shoulder the not inconsiderable burden of the movie’s deep-seated malaise. High-brow supporting cameos (Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton, Paul Giamatti) come and go but it’s the under-appreciated Pattinson who provides the real engine power and who earns the right to be taken a lot more seriously than some give him credit for. The fact that a film with a star this big has managed to find such a (comparatively) small audience perversely proves its artistic integrity. I still don’t actually like it, though.”

“If Cosmopolis leaves you feeling nothing for its main character, that’s by design. Even as Eric’s possible comeuppance seems imminent near the end, Pattinson doesn’t try to make us care about this poor, heartless bastard. Cronenberg’s claustrophobic construction of Eric’s world is brilliant and monochromatic and entirely unnerving. Cronenberg and Pattinson have given us a frightening image of the modern power player as utterly soulless cipher.”

Screened.com

“I think it’s an important, brave movie. I think we will see many people attempt similar projects with more focus as we learn to articulate these ideals better. But I think that Cronenberg has married his early sense of profound wrongness and his more mature understanding of human nature into the kind of movie that synthesizes a monster, a fevered nightmare that’s scary not because it feels so foreign, but that because the cavalcade of weirdness seems all too much like the world we know and face every day, even more unequipped than this avatar of privilege, that is ready to devour all of us alive.”

ScreenCrush

“I must confess that I didn’t always follow what Cronenberg was up to in Cosmopolis, but I always enjoyed the ride. The atmosphere is dark and bizarre, and deadpan too — it’s sometimes hard to tell whether the joke is on the capitalists, the anti-capitalists, or the audience … Personally, I loved the final shot. That’s exactly how this dream would end just a second before you woke up.”

“Given the increasingly marked social divides, particularly in Europe, the film feels more relevant now than ever. And as a thoughtful essay on a man fighting for meaning within his hollow surrounds, it’s riveting, poetic and thoroughly Cronenberg.”

QuickFlix

“Yes, Cosmopolis is often too talky for its own good; alienating and cynical and mostly unpleasant. However, Giamatti is able to convey some genuine emotion and pain in his scenes, and everything that didn’t make sense prior gains clarity through his sheer humanity amidst the film’s relentless flurry of cold, calculated, incoherent inhumanity.”

Film Journal

“For all its artificial mannerisms though, Cosmopolis isn’t one of the director’s more abstruse and off-putting constructions; this is a sleek, seductive construction … but Cronenberg still maintains his tone of ironic prophecy, showing a world being spun towards chaos by a furiously accelerating present.”

Warren Ellis Dot Com

“There is something almost brilliant in here, in places. The weird back-projection of the world outside the car [that] the film (mostly) takes place in is a great choice. There are ideas, and ambitions… and I’m going to have to watch the damn thing again. Because it’s making me think about it.”

Capital New York

“Long takes give dimension to non sequitur strings of dialogue, with Pattinson under particular pressure. For the most part, and especially in a creepy-hot sex scene with a bodyguard (Patricia McKenzie), he projects a commanding, slow-burning detachment.”

Symbiotic Reviews

“It’s quite likely that Cosmopolis will be seen by many as a film rife with bad acting, snooze-inducing pacing, and ridiculous dialogue. In many ways, this is all true and precisely the point. The acting is stylized and heightened to match the sterile intellectual musings of DeLillo’s prose, the pacing is laborious at best, and there isn’t anything to connect to from an emotional standpoint. But these criticisms actually help emphasize the point that DeLillo, and by extension Cronenberg, are interested in deconstructing a civilization in the state of collapse.”

Adding,

“But make no mistake; Cosmopolis is uneven and often baffling, but it’s also daring. It’s as if Cronenberg set out to make the most cryptically antagonistic film of the year, and in many ways he succeeded. But is it worth mentioning once again that the movie is deviously funny?”

“It may take a year or two before I can decide whether or not Cosmopolis is a work of genius, but it’s too smart and layered and provocative to dismiss as merely pretentious or in love with the sound of its own voice. It’s the kind of film that starts arguments, so see it if for no other reason than to know on which side you’ll be standing.”

MovieFix

“Drawing mixed reactions since its unveiling at Cannes this year, Cosmopolis is in part frustrating, but mostly brilliant, right down to the final thrilling scene (featuring the ever-talented Paul Giamatti) … if playright Harold Pinter was alive to write a sequel to Fight Club, then Cosmopolis could be it. For that reason, it won’t be everyone’s film of choice. But don’t listen to the haters – this linguistically complex and eloquently dark film is much more clever than pretentious.”

“Pattinson has made a very conscious choice to direct his acting career away from the Twilight franchise, and squarely in that of renowned directors and more complicated material. He pulls this off to great effect, as the film leaves its leading man nowhere to hide in regards to his acting ability and screen presence.”

“Inspired by Don DeLillo’s novel Cosmopolis, writer-director David Cronenberg crafts a drama about wealth, isolation and fear of mortality that is vigorously repulsive yet deeply compelling. Robert Pattinson willfully discards his teen dream persona playing depraved and self-destructive billionaire Eric Packer, who risks his fortune, marriage, and life while traversing Manhattan to get a simple haircut.”

Antagony And Ecstasy

“It’s important for Cosmopolis to fail as a conventional movie, because conventional movies are part of the system that Cosmopolis is attacking; heck, that’s why teen idol Pattinson makes such perfect sense in the main role, given that his chief point of interest as an actor to date has been his inflexible lack of affect, and given that putting someone famous primarily for being famous and rich for doing very little fits so perfectly into a movie where pop culture and enormous wealth are so endlessly mocked as they are here.”

NPR

“Pattinson plays a different sort of vampire in Cosmopolis — a soulless Wall Street billionaire who inches across Manhattan in a white stretch limousine, oblivious to the turmoil outside his hermetic coffin. His casting remains the most compelling thing about David Cronenberg’s cerebral adaptation.”

Live Trading News[same review also ran in Fox News]

“Robert Pattinson’s portrayal of Eric Packer is remarkable, he is is as dead inside Eric as the Twilight vampire, he is chilling in his range of the actor’s craft.”

Yareah Magazine

“I don’t know if Cosmopolis is Cronenberg’s best film but I must say that it’s one of his films that I like most. A mixture of atmosphere, good screenplay… and strange moments [with] plenty of originality. I know Cronemberg is not perfect but… who is? Really good dialogues, great atmosphere. I recommend it.”

Film Freak Central

“It is, finally, a summary of Cronenberg’s work to this point, as well as a statement of absolute fear and loathing. A lovely post-modern work, it’s killed God by discovering there never was one to begin with.”

Slate

“I recommend Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg’s adaptation of the 2003 Don DeLillo novel of the same name, in the spirit that I might recommend Scandinavian-style salted licorice. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, to put it mildly—even some Cronenberg devotees may be turned off by this movie’s icy, cerebral quality, its aggressive oddness. But at least it doesn’t taste like anything else out there. ”

Film School Rejects

“Cosmopolis in a way completes what Cronenberg started with his body horror films, moving from the transformation of the body through its insides (Videodrome, The Fly) to its surface (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) to a vision of the outside world as governed by the subjectivity of the privileged few. According to Cosmopolis, we’re all living through the alienation, intellectual distance, and subjective world-making of the one percent.”

“Pattinson isn’t required to teeter the edge of sanity like the brilliant Christian Bale, but his casting and the coolness of his performance is appropriately masterful.”

The Young Folks

“Cosmopolis made me think, which something I always appreciate coming from a film. It’s not for everyone though. If you love Cronenberg and his work, it’s a must-see. If you’re interested and/or knowledgeable when it comes to the economy, this movie is right up your alley. Yeah, it’s a bizarre joy ride and a very smart one at that.”

Graffiti With Punctuation

“It’s definitely one of the more obtuse films to be released in 2012, that can’t be argued otherwise, but it’s also one of the more important given the current post-GFC climate we’re living in… I’m not here to convince you that this film needs to be 5 stars. This is served merely to highlight the importance of such a film and those not too dissimilar to it. If you can’t get past the dense language and stiff (!) delivery then I can’t help you. But to sit back and say ‘yeah, yeah I get it already’ and then go out and happily enjoy the forbidden fruits that these films speak so strongly against then, I hate to say it, you clearly don’t.”

“With his transfixing mask and dead stare, [Pattinson] looks the part he plays here and delivers a physical performance that holds up to a battery of abuses… The difficulties of shooting in such a tight space, which seems to expand and contract depending on the scene… are conspicuous but rendered invisible by [Cronenberg’s] masterly filmmaking.”

Cinetalk

“Cronenberg Sr. showed he has lost none of his touch with Cosmopolis, starring vampire of sorts Robert Pattinson, whose career is now officially disinterred. Adapted and updated from Don De Lillo’s 2003 novel, the film follows a New York plutocrat’s ride across town for a (literal and symbolic) haircut, as in the space of one day – and mostly within the confines of his customized limousine — he loses everything. It is also an elegiac odyssey through the kind of self-destructive hubris that led to the Credit Crunch and the economic mess that we are still in today.”

“The world Cronenberg creates is a sort of post-apocalyptic American Psycho in which we follow the beautiful Robert Pattinson down his path towards self-destruction. But unlike American Psycho, actual physical violence is sparse and (with one notable exception) brief. And yet the movie still succeeds in being alienating without heavy reliance on goopy set pieces or graphic violence. It does this primarily with the stylized and almost stilted dialogue, and secondarily through the absurdity of the plot (e.g. Pattinson receives a prostate exam in his limo while consulting with one of his many advisers). I loved it.”

The Cornell Daily Sun

“Cosmopolis does not excite with its effects or pacing, but impresses as a slick demonstration of how things can be kept interesting. Few directors can pull off staying in one location for multiple scenes — Hitchcock’s Rope and Lumet’s 12 Angry Men set the bar high in the ’50s, as did Danny Boyle, more recently, in 127 Hours. Cronenberg finds distinct and expressive approaches to every scene, composing striking frames with moody colors and detailed production design, courtesy of cinematographer Peter Suschitzky and designer Arvinder Grewal.”

Indiewire[Review by Vadim Rizov]

“Cosmopolis is a perfect pairing of director and author: Cronenberg streamlines DeLillo’s increasingly dominant magisterial streak, highlights the jokes better, and spirals through showboating dialogue to a state-of-the-international-economy finale.”

Vulture

“Pattinson has just the right level of serenity mixed with physical discomfort: He moves gracefully, and yet we can sense his head bobbing ever so slightly, his hands fidgeting ever so noticeably. His calm is an aspirational one; we can tell he feels none of it… Cronenberg also manages to create a compellingly sensuous world within the claustrophobic setup.”

MSN Movies

“Cosmopolis is almost certainly some kind of masterpiece, but I have to admit it’s probably not for everyone… But what it does is make you look at the world differently when you come out of the theater (and that’s what all the best Cronenberg work does). What you do after that is up to you.”

CinePassion

“[A] callow billionaire spends a long day’s journey into night inching across a metropolis, passes through a galaxy of employees and mistresses and protesters, penetrates and is penetrated, and seeks petulant deliverance in the pull of death. “Such science and ego combined!” That Robert Pattinson plays him is but one of David Cronenberg’s wily, astute moves… A most dense work, baleful, very funny and sinuous, never afraid to excruciate its audience, a master filmmaker’s rumination on capitalism as a vision of diseased titanium.”

City Weekly

“[A] movie that’s fascinating even when it’s inscrutable… Cronenberg repeatedly finds moments of eye-opening clarity punctuated with dark humor, building to a gripping exchange between Packer and a would-be assassin (Paul Giamatti). If Cosmopolis remains chilly and remote, it does so in a way that often feels unsettlingly familiar.”

“It’s hard to imagine an actor better in the role of Eric than Pattinson, who brings snap and intelligence to DeLillo’s death-haunted dialogue (Cronenberg has even suggested Eric is actually dead) at the same time as suggesting the man he once was. If you thought his Edward Cullen was a cold bloodsucking parasite wait until you get a load of his Eric Packer.”

“Say what you will about the Twilight series but you can’t lay the blame at the feet of Robert Pattinson who is just playing an iconic character written to appeal to young teenage girls. Common opinion seems to be that once the series is over, Pattinson is pretty much done. His work in Cosmopolis proves that he is actually the real deal, Pattinson is in every scene and carries the film with ease having to cope with heavy dialogue in scenes that seem to favor a really long take. His portrayal of the character is flawless.”

“Robert Pattinson was a real revelation here, this is his best performance to date. There are no shades of Twilight or a teen heart throb here, instead he is a very cold and collected person who slowly loses it. He goes from great to greater as the film moves from its first act to its third. He seems like a great fit for Cronenberg, and this is evidence that the man is talented with the right material.”

“Cosmopolis proves to be an outstanding and unflinching depiction of the current climate… In a real game changing role, Pattinson delivers his most accomplished and assured performance to date. Anchoring the film with meticulous poise and charisma, his thoroughly engaging protagonist here may finally put the doubters to rest in regards his acting abilities… Cosmopolis is an engrossing piece of cinema saturated in social resonance and intellect that deserves its intricacies to be deciphered.” [DVD review here]

“If you had told me at the beginning of this year that I’d ever write Robert Pattinson’s name under Best anything (except perhaps ‘forgotten’), I’d have laughed in your face for minutes on end — especially after… Bel Ami — but Cosmopolis proves that behind the vacancy of Edward Cullen lurks a much darker side, and a surprising, intelligent, actor.

And,

“Pattinson’s Eric Packer is more a vampire than his Twilight character; feeding off the lifeblood of the world, but hiding from its light in a coffin like limo. There’s a sense of total dislocation from the world and from people, reflected in Cronenberg’s imagery, but very present in Pattinson’s work. However, there’s complexity too; an evolution scene by scene as Packer trashes his own life bit by bit, coming closer to engaging in the world as he does so. It’s the slow cracking of that mask that is so remarkable in Pattinson’s performance. I just hope that — unlike Hayden Christensen after Shattered Glass — Pattinson seeks out more challenging work, because here he’s a revelation.”

OneGuy’sOpinion

“Cosmopolis has a good deal of the hypnotic character of Cronenberg’s greatest film, Dead Ringers. Though emotionally cold and methodical in a way that will perplex and even antagonize many viewers, it’s some kind of great film made from some kind of a great book, and even those who dislike it intensely will find the memory of it difficult to shake (which will probably make them dislike it all the more). And, frankly, one relishes the thought of Twilight devotees flocking to see Pattinson and encountering the dark, diseased Eric Packer instead of pasty, doe-eyed Edward Cullen.”

“The movie is timeless yet it functions as historical document… it also functions as a superb meta-commentary on the value of celebrity by casting Pattinson in the lead. There could be no better choice, because not only does Pattinson break free of his romantic-lead mold, but by the very fact that we note his freedom… Cosmopolis is a calculated 180 for the actor. It’s the only way his career continues to grow, and it’s the smart move because he has attached his value to an indie feature, and split his risk by having David Cronenberg at the helm. Pattinson gives an intentionally stilted performance, but no one will be able to walk away from this movie thinking he can’t act. ”

McCoyed

“This is the kind of film that you’re supposed to sit down and talk about after. It’s not going to work if I just say, “hey I liked it, go see it” or “hey I didn’t like it, don’t go see it”. It won’t work to talk about the stories or the three-act narrative. Cosmopolis is a movie of ideas, a dynamic and compelling philosophical dialogue on celluloid. One that has real implications for civilization and our own internal struggles for meaning, just like a good philosophical dialogue should.”

“Praise must go to Pattinson’s terrific performance. A magnetic, mesmerising anti-presence, the perfect redeployment of the pin-up cheekbones of the R-Pattz myth. As the camera gazes deeper into his frozen face, we detect a concerto of tiny twitches, lurking smirks and trickles of sweat — micro-fluctuations in the sanity of a man who has everything.”

ArtInfo

“Cosmopolis” is as an exercise in outlandish dialogue and bone-dry humor, a contemporary allegory that is also a sustained riff on the idea of a virtual world.”

“Cronenberg brings his audience on a nihilistic romp through an undefined space. Money becomes mere digits on a screen, images of rats are seared into our brain and blood flows. Cosmopolis is intense, brooding, reflective and mesmerising. A must-see.”

“Beyond its contempt of Eric Packer and everything he represents, beyond the cascade of self-satisfied demi-people talking and talking and saying nothing, Cosmopolis discovers the exhausted terror of Herbet’s poem. It conjures a potent vision of a society crumbling under the weight of its bloody-flecked ideologies and its desperate insistence of its own significance.”

“I’ll cut right to the chase: The film is an absolute work of art, and Robert Pattinson’s performance is nothing short of stunning… what the film manages to do brilliantly is inject action and a vibrant kineticism into a small space, in this case the limousine in which the majority of the story takes place… go and see this film, probably the most exciting piece of cinema this century.”

Next Projection

“92/100 ~ Amazing. This is Cronenberg returned to what he does best, delivering a film that stands both as a highlight of this year, and of its director’s work to date.”

The Toronto Star

“A blockbuster of the mind, Cosmopolis fascinates as much for what writer/director David Cronenberg shows us as for what he chooses not to… We might quibble with the emphasis Cronenberg places on dialogue, on the staginess of his sets and on the relative lack of action. What we can’t argue is that Cosmopolis is the work of a master filmmaker, one determined to have us think about the ideas packed into the trunk of this limo bound for the furthest corners of the psyche.”

Moria

“Nomination for Best Film of 2012 so far… it is a film that you immediately want to return and watch again just so as to absorb more of the dialogue… the one who emerges the best out of this [cast] is surprisingly Robert Pattinson who delivers a performance of coolly reptilian aloofness.”

Monsters and Critics

“Eric Packer (in a stunning performance by Robert Pattinson)… staged almost entirely in the stretch limousine Cronenberg enccouraged people to see Lebanon, which is filmed entirely in the confines of a tank. The two films are very similar. Some die and some live, but nobody comes out the same as they went in.”

AV Club

“Pattinson is really good in Cosmopolis. It’s a cold, flinty movie that seems to draw from Bertolt Brecht’s alienating “epic theater,” ramping up the self-consciously artificial quality of the production to distance viewers from its cast of venture capitalists, proto-Occupy radicals, and would-be assassins. Pattinson ditches the glitter and blood-red contact lenses, but otherwise, plays things even chillier as a cold-blooded billionaire capitalist calmly watching the stock market crumble around him as he lurches across New York City in a decked-out limousine. As a vessel for DeLillo’s dialogue and Cronenberg’s (perhaps intentionally) stuffy direction, he’s fantastic.”

MovieLine

“Pattinson does a quietly marvelous thing in finding vulnerability in Eric without making it seem like softness. The film depicts Eric’s financial kingdom (and with it his sense of self) crumbling over a day, but his breakdown is a gradual one. His panic rises in barely perceptible increments.”

“Cronenberg’s casting of Robert Pattinson as his lead is a strong, distinctive choice-and a smart one in that the actor’s bankability has enabled the director to make a supremely offbeat art film. Pattinson is surprisingly good, far better than you’d imagine from his awkwardly wolfish turn in the recent period drama Bel Ami. It’s a high eccentric performance too, at first blankly arrogant, fitting Eric’s sheened tailor’s dummy surface, but then more fragile.”

Ant Films

“Robert Pattinson is in almost every moment of the film and gives what is without a doubt his career best performance. Pattinson plays Eric Packer with a deep internal rage, like a volcano about to erupt, but with a stone facade… Packer is the center of the film and if Pattinson’s performance was anything less than fantastic the film would have failed. Robert Pattinson gives one of the best performances of the year in Cosmopolis.”

House of Paradox

“Like Packer, Pattinson is more a name than a recognisable personality, a figure all know but few truly understand. In Pattinson’s every glance, every movement, every smile, there is the sense of a man coming to terms with whom and what he is. Packer’s shifting perspective on himself is far more understated than that of the world’s, and in this the true brilliance of both Pattinson and the film itself come to be revealed.”

Adding,

“Only Cronenberg could have made this movie. Only Cronenberg could have drawn out in so revelatory a way the greatness waiting within Pattinson, only Cronenberg could have dressed up so morally complex and philosophically rich a story in so evident an allegory, only Cronenberg could have distorted the recognisable world in such a way as to make it more real. This is Cronenberg returned to what he does best, delivering a film that stands both as a highlight of this year, and of its director’s work to date. Cosmopolis is not just a reflection of our times, it is a reflection of our lives, a reflection of ourselves and the dark, angry asymmetry of our existence.”

Cinema Year One

“One of our main modern masters, Cronenberg returns to indifferent cineplexes triumphant once again… Robert Pattinson gives a brilliantly modulated performance which erases bad memories of s****y Twilight movies; his co-stars make up one of the most dynamic casts of the year; Paul Giamatti, Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton, Jay Baruchel, spellbinding ingenue Sarah Gadon. Their interplay as directed by Cronenberg builds a wall of austere despair that is one of the most incisive and expressive portrayals of the capitalist malaise our country is mired in.”

“Pattinson, capable of an unnerving stillness and a sublimely blank face, is completely in step with Cronenberg’s tone– you can see why the two are eager to work together again… Cosmopolis is a puzzler, a movie that challenges you to understand it knowing fully well you never will. But it contains enough mordant humor, enough pops of sex and violence, and enough rich performances to make all that head-scratching worth it.”

“There are about a million places you could start with this thing. Oh, hell: “Brilliant.” Cosmopolis is certainly a brilliant film, one filled with all the subtext and qualities we call “cinematic” that you could ask for, but it presents this in a manner so deceptively simple it can only feel like genius… So much of this rides on Pattinson’s shoulders — the man is in virtually every scene — making it all the more fortunate that he’s got the character down to a T.”

Dear Cinema

“In essence, the film is a work of art – not because it is formally perfect but because it affords opportunity for thought, one thing that cinema does not often provide today.”

Larsen On Film

“To be fair, Cosmopolis is a bit more focused than that. The center of this particular universe is Pattinson’s Packer. (The center of his universe appears to be the Dr. Evilish chair at the rear of the limo, from which he both monitors world markets and has sex.) Pattinson is very good: clipped, still, yet always a threat. Indeed, he’s more of a pained killer here than in the Twilight films. The quick, ideologically dominated dialogue scenes are the heart of the film – “All wealth has become wealth for its own sake,” goes one bon mot – and Pattinson easily matches verbal wits with everyone from Juliette Binoche to Samantha Morton to Jay Baruchel.”

Adding,

“Giamatti is a marvel – trying to explain why he can’t function in society, he says that “it’s all the names they have for shoes – yet Pattinson, again, more than keeps pace. As the actors spar, we’re watching an ideological battle of wills, as if Goldman Sachs is squaring off against Occupy Wall Street.”

“What will probably be most remembered about the film is its star, and his turn from the safe leading male roles his audience has come to love him for. Pattinson is no sparkling vampire in this film. He is however, disconnected, which seems to be a theme he returns to. Cronenberg draws from Pattinson an uneasy, restless person, whose quest seems to be a downward spiral. This really is the Pattinson show in the end. All other characters are merely tools for delivering contrary ideas to what Packer represents.”

Smells Like Screen Spirit

“I really could not imagine a better writer-director to adapt DeLillo’s dense-yet-dreamily-poetic dialogue and Cronenberg nails DeLillo’s token tone, rhythm and pacing that has differentiated him from other [post] modern writers. DeLillo and Cronenberg saturate every single word, sound and image with significance creating a presumably impossible to crack puzzle, not unlike some of Cronenberg’s most challenging films, Existenz, Crash, and Videodrome. Twihards (specially those on Team Edward) beware, this is not your typical Robert Pattinson role.”

Philadelphia Weekly

“Cosmopolis is an ice-cold, woozy nightmare of a movie. The sleek limousine becomes a sort of purgatory, as Eric rides ever-forward at less than 5 mph toward ruin. He f*ks, drinks, kills and even treats himself to an epically invasive prostrate exam—any opportunity to jolt himself from this all-encompassing numbness, an emotional state at which Pattinson naturally excels. Great casting. ”

Ain’t It Cool

“Cosmopolis has a lot on its mind and it’s difficult to process after just one viewing. This wasn’t a film I left the theater in love with… it was one I had to mull over. I explored my feelings on this film while writing this review more than I typically do. The more distance I get from the movie, the more I like it… Love it or hate it, it’s a fascinating movie, a different kind of experience than you usually expect at the cinema.”

Labuza Movies

“Cosmopolis, the latest and perhaps best film in over twenty years from Canadian director David Cronenberg… its also intensely funny, thrilling, and hypnotizing that it’s a film that can truly be enjoyed as a thrill ride… Robert Pattison, restrained, cold, and delectably brilliant… there’s so much to unpack in this gem, an easy candidate for the year’s most electrifying cinema. The film’s so pulled from real life, so vacuumed of any “realism.”

“(Robert Pattinson, as compelling as he is indecipherable)… [with] Cronenberg gives us this astonishingly literal adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 2003 novel, also titled Cosmopolis, written in the wake of 9/11 and Enron but prophetic of the cybercapitalism that has grown all-encompassing over the past ten years.”

Game Redemption

“Despite Pattinson’s strange New York accent (let’s chalk that up to the surreal tone) he holds his own when sharing the stage with Juliette Binoche, Samantha Morton and Paul Giamatti. That is very important given that Cronenberg decides to keep the camera close with long takes and shots. With Pattison taking up the majority of the screen time and screen, a substantial amount of pressure rests on his shoulders to carry the film and he pulls it off.”

CBC News

“It’s obvious why Pattinson has become Cronenberg’s new Viggo: he has the aquiline profile of a Cronenbergian protagonist and a certain feral cunning in his cold, dark eyes. More importantly, there’s nothing standing in the way of the script. Pattinson is a vessel, a piece of glass. In between delivering his lines of dialogue, he is so still that one questions his existence.”

Artist Access

“Cronenberg, as he did with Naked Lunch (1991) and Crash(1996), makes tremendous use of his source material. Just like those films, Cosmopolis was thought to be unfilmable, but the director utilizes aspects of the novel that would normally translate to cinema with difficulty to his advantage.”

“Robert Pattinson… goes from Twilightto Cosmopolis with perfect ease. He plays incredibly well the mixture of youth and cruelty, sex-appeal and decadence, desire and death, and the morbid pathology of the “winning” ethos that this film radiates and is a sign of our times.”

RJE Friends of Junior

“Cosmopolis is not easy… and yet I couldn’t help but find it fascinating. Pattinson is an excellent choice to play Packer. He embodies the cold stoicism of a marble statue, yet, all the while has a highly calculating mind and a predatory ferocity just under the surface. He plays Packer’s slow meltdown in a subtle note-by-note change rather than let it devolve into histrionics.”

“Cosmopolis is just about the most enthralling film of the year, capable of sucking in a viewer into the same black hole that consumes the image and the strange (and even more strangely delivered) dialogue. Not explicitly an apocalypse movie nor a Death of Cinema picture, Cronenberg’s latest feels like both, as the sudden meaningless of money threatens to take the world (and film) with it.”

Nerd Span

The storyline doesn’t look like much at first glance. But it’s precisely in that apparent simplicity where the value of Cosmopolis resides. In creating an accurate, poignant portrayal of everyday contemporary life from the physically restricted space of a limo… Robert Pattinson is truly surprising as he delivers a mature, convincing as hell performance. His work is so solid, he’s not sucked up by the impressive screen presence of Paul Giamatti in the film’s memorable showdown.”

“The aforementioned Pattinson, Gadon, and Durand are the triumvirate which is a constant throughout most of the film… Pattinson’s delicately understated performance improves in inverse proportion to the state of Eric’s personality as it evolves. It’s an acquired taste. It means, by definition, the viewer needs to follow along to fully appreciate what he does here… Few actors of his generation would be able to take on such a nuanced role and make it believable. The selection of Pattinson, in taking on the challenge of playing an uncharacteristically unsympathetic protagonist, was a coup for Cronenberg and the performance which helps make Cosmopolis a stunning creative accomplishment. ”

DVD Verdict

“Cosmopolis gets my vote for the best film of 2012. It may not be the most heartwarming or the most politically engaged, but its impressive technology and the realization that those with their hands on the wheel are no better (or more sane) than you or I captures something about what it was like to live in 2012. Maybe that’s a trite realization to trot out in the second decade of the 21st century, but it’s one that feels appropriately fresh, alive, and conflicted in way no other films have matched.”

“Cosmopolis is Cronenberg’s first movie since Videodrome to not only identify a particular zeitgeist but embody it in form and content. As television was to Videodrome, the digitalization of all information is to Cosmopolis. Cronenberg pulls no punches in showing us the digital death trip, and the result is exhilarating and liberating… Pattinson is as subtle as he is spectacular.”

Canadian Cinephile

“Pattinson finally has a use for his trademark coldness, for one, and he makes for a tremendous lead actor here… Yet Pattinson is up for more than just a departure from what appeals to screaming hordes of young girls and house-wives and Cosmopolis runs the danger of turning him into a serious, reputable, dangerous actor.”

Pissed Off Geek

“Cosmopolis is brave film-making. It’s unapologetic and surreal. In ways it reminds me of American Psycho, though the actual violence and psychosis is very insular to the Eric character himself. He self-destructs to the very point that he removes everything from his life but death, and the final confrontation is almost annoying unanswered that we sit there wondering just how it ended, if it even ended at all.”

“Cosmopolis is a film where Cronenberg goes a step beyond certain thematic and formal obsessions he always had. Many will miss something more ‘intense’ from him, but the helmer of Videodrome and Crash (… and Cosmopolis, movies that couldform a trilogy on the destruction of ego and body as a nirvana to be achieved) seems to have entered a more cerebral and auto reflective stage in his cinematography.”

“It’s been years since Cronenberg delivered something this visually and aurally articulate, worthy of numerous viewings and readings. The seemingly random, yet keenly perceptive, brilliance of its words taunts you to keep up. Well beyond Cronenberg’s usual fascination with frailty of flesh and mutilation, Cosmopolis is a movie of consummate decay, a mad downward spiral indicative of a man’s — and a society’s — slipping-down life. It ends with a ripped-from-the-headlines final act that’s as much a squaring off of classes as any scene concerning the French Revolution. And yet, we take it in as just a riveting, terrifically acted exchange between two men.”

“Once in a while, there are moments when you are watching a film where you feel completely uneasy – not so you’re going to throw up or walk out because you feel disgusted or violated, but where the tension just completely overwhelms you so that you’re grasping whatever you can to get over the unsettling feeling. Imagine that feeling for a whole 108 minutes, and that’s probably the best short description I could give you about nerve-wracking mastermind David Cronenberg’s newest movie Cosmopolis.”

“This is a film that you may think you don’t understand at times, but you’ll still connect with in some way if you allow yourself to. Performances are stellar [even from Pattinson] and I believe that this a career best from director David Cronenberg. Cosmopolis is something special from the man who specializes in studies of the human body and its decay, as well as how that decay interferes with one’s psyche. This film is one you’ll want to keep talking and talking about, if only you can leave the limo so you’re not talking to yourself.”

“Elusive and mesmerising, Cosmopolis might have raised eyebrows with its casting of Robert Pattinson as Eric Packer, but the actor shines in the lead. Cronenberg’s exploration of existentialist concerns, on a dizzing array of levels, is both playful and vital, falling somewhere between The Naked Lunch and EXistenZ yet offering something entirely fresh.”

“Even though its tone is resigned and mordantly funny and its pace is slow, Cosmopolis is a thrillingly spare, controlled work. But you have to be willing to adapt to its sleepwalking mood and to its performances, which occur within such a narrow emotional bandwidth that at one point I pictured an orchestra conductor handing a violinist a Stradivarius with one string and saying, “You can make beautiful music with this, trust me.”

Adding,

“Every actor rises to the challenge. The movie features one bizarre knockout supporting turn after another: Juliette Binoche as a lover who interrogates Eric after fucking him; Schifrin’s Sarah, whose beyond-her-years cynicism is a bulwark against emotional collapse; Durand’s security guy Torval… Giamatti’s all-out anguish in the finale almost steals the picture from Pattinson.”

“Robert Pattinson is magnetic as Eric Packer, slick, jaded 26-year-old CEO of Packer Capital who decides to take a fleet of limousines across New York City in search of a haircut. This is his best performance to date by some considerable margin. Yes, even better than Remember Me.”

Narain Jashanmal

“Inscrutable yet compelling, Dellilo’s 2003 book was prescient and consequently Cronenberg’s 2012 is timely… Cronenberg’s proves once again to an astute observer of both human nature and the constructs we create to shield ourselves from — ourselves and the fragility of these constructs.”

Film Geek Central

“Once is not enough to see Cosmopolis. It is a complex film with enigmas within enigmas. It’s also a ballsy, uncompromising film for people who are a little more adventurous with their film choices. This is not a film for everyone. It’s a film for the very, very few. That does not make Cosmopolis as elitist as Eric Packer. It just makes it all the more strange, distinguished and crucial to an increasingly mundane modern cinematic landscape.

“Cosmopolis […] is the first feature film since 1999’s eXistenZ that filmmaker David Cronenberg has directed and scripted. This in part explains why Cosmopolisis such a triumph: it’s both an exceptional adaptation and a remarkable work unto itself.”

Shotgun Critic

“This is Robert Pattinson’s hands-down best role. In the hands of a very capable director and a punishing script, Pattinson turns in a performance that channels a young Robert De Niro, New York twang and all. His performance is so understated and brilliant that, during moments where he breaks through this Wall Street gloss, he comes across as truly unhinged and monstrous. This is a frightening performance in the best ways and points towards a hell of a career ahead for Pattinson.”

Hitfix

“Thinking it over for the last week or so, I can’t get it [Cosmopolis] out of my head. It’s exquisitely made, carefully controlled, a simmering look into the dead empty eyes of Eric Packer… as Rome burns around him… Pattinson is fascinating in the role. He seems to constantly be shifting through a complicated but subterranean inner implosion, pieces of himself shutting down at random, little by little.”

“Robert Pattinson’s performance is a f*******g revelation. His acting has always carried a sort of numb and cold nature that has seriously been his downfall in many films. However, those traits work perfectly for this character so much so that from the very first shot Pattinson instantly is Eric Packer. Whereas before his numb and coldness was hollow, in here it is rich in internal thought, anxiety, despair and examination. ”

“Cosmopolis is revolutionary, even if it implies the futility of revolution. Capitalism is referred to as a “specter” as it cannot be admonished with the reprimand of its benefactors. The phrase “a specter haunts this world, the specter of capitalism” is, in itself, a projection but it suggests something less ephemeral; it is that which can be digitized, mobilized, and gentrified – it is actually man’s artifice of eternity. Although promoted as an odyssey of war, violence and sex, the film’s terror is in its inactivity, it’s unresponsive, unflinching inertness. It is surely 2012’s apocalyptic masterpiece.”

“Dense as a brick, Cosmopolis is breathtaking. On the surface a film about our economic crisis, the antagonizing and in your face nature of the film’s philosophizing is that only able to be crafted by a man not of the US… Cronenberg attempts to give his viewers a blend of his body-centric horror (particularly during a sequence involving our lead getting a check-up, of which he does daily) while also proving that the recession was bred by something far more distinct and evil: human nature. A brazenly cold and aggressive feature, Cosmopolis attempts to give its audience a look into the dangers and inherent evils of capitalism… It’s a film that the economist version of Hunter S. Thompson would have penned.”

“Working with gifted cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, Cronenberg creates a crumbling world in microcosm. In this fever dream of a movie, Pattinson is incendiary, notably in a climactic gun scene with the great Giamatti. Cosmopolis, demanding as it is daring, is no easy ride. I mean that as high praise.”

“Prior to this release, Robert Pattinson stated that he wanted to shun the teen movie icon he has been labeled. With this performance he may have discontinued that notion very quickly. Pattinson is stunning as Packer. A cold, mysterious lizard of a man who sulks around his limo like a disappointed child on Christmas day.”

Adding,

“Cronenberg’s transition into a more prestige type of filmmaking was suspect in A Dangerous Method, but Cosmopolis is a much grander and engaging achievement… DeLillo and Cronenberg don’t want to be prophets. But in this age of Hollywood remakes and super hero movies, why not praise a film for being daring and original. If this proves to be the future of film, then what greater prophecy could there be than that?

“Cosmopolis is the only film so far this year that I would pay money to re-watch… Too many people are sitting back saying they didn’t get it, there were no guys in costumes blasting energy bolts at each other, no explosions, Pattinson was too passive, the themes were too obscure… Yeah, look: you totally, completely, utterly missed the point. All the things about Cosmopolis that you didn’t understand and are complaining about were exactly the point of the film. Cronenberg roped you in with Pattinson (and what a brilliant call that was), and a great performance by Pattison, kudos all round.”

“This is also why casting Robert Pattinson in this role is a stroke of genius. Apart from delivering a very fine performance, he is arguably the star currently inspiring some of the least sane responses in our culture. When, at the film’s climax, he is confronted with a maniac insisting ‘I know everything that’s ever been said or written about you. I know what I see in your face, after years of study,’ it’s not hard to appreciate how brilliant – and perhaps cathartic – a role this is for him, one that figuratively interrogates the fame-capital he has accrued so far. Pattinson apparently as interested as Packer in the possibility of re-setting as something else.”

Certainly this is a watershed moment for Pattinson. But as he transitions from a perception of purely commercial success to critical — from the look at the above — it’s clear the majority of critics think he aced the jump. The word is bravo.

Update: In addition to the slew of critics’ notices for Pattinson’s performance, and those collated by the award winning cosmopolis-filmwebsite, at the close of 2012 Cosmopolis made the cut on a number of Best Film lists: